Transcripts
1. Welcome!: Hi there. My name is Shivani
and I'm a gouache artist, creative entrepreneur and
surface pattern designer based in the sunny City of
Chennai in the South of India. I'm so excited to
welcome you into this class because it's a topic that I'm really
passionate about. Way before I started my
art business back in 2022, I had actually started a couple of other creative
businesses as well. Once I graduated
from design school, I started a sustainable lifestyle accessories
brand called Arture. Over the years, as I've
grown more experienced with my creative practice and
with business and marketing, I realized that I've made
many mistakes in the past. If I had to point out
the one biggest mistake I made when I first
started a business, it was not having a clear plan. Having a plan is not about
being rigid with your goals, but more about having
some sort of a roadmap. Having a plan helps
you have a vision of where you want to go and where you want your
business to go. It helps you set clear goals, and it helps you stay focused on the most important
things in your business. Whether you're an
artist who just wants to start earning
part time from your art or you're a seasoned entrepreneur who already has a running
art business, there's a lot that you can
learn by taking this class. We're going to
talk about how and why you need to think of
yourself as a business. We're going to talk
about income streams, pricing, marketing,
and so much more. We're going to develop a clear vision for our
creative practice, as well as our business, and we're going to set
goals with meaning. In my own art business, I have so many
different streams of income through
which I earn money. I teach here on Skillshare. I have a YouTube channel,
I conduct workshops. I sell my original artwork, as well as prints of my work. As creative people, it's common
for us to find ourselves having too many different ideas and not knowing which
direction to go in. This class is going to help
you clarify all of that. I'm really excited to
get started with you, and let's jump into
the next lesson where we're going to talk more
about the class project.
2. The class project: In the description
of this class below, you're going to find
the class resource, which is this
workbook right here. As we go through the different
lessons in this class, we're going to work through all of our ideas in this workbook. This workbook is going to form the North star for your
creative business. It's going to help you
clarify all of your ideas, and it's going to
give you space to brainstorm as you go
through the lessons. You can fill this out either by printing it out
and filling it with pen or you can just download the PDF and fill it digitally,
whatever works for you. As we go through the lessons, I'm going to be telling
you exactly how to fill out the relevant
sections of the workbook. If you'd like to,
you can fill them out as we go through
the lessons, or you can watch all
of the lessons and then fill your workbook
completely at the end. Again, it's
completely up to you. Also, towards the
end of the workbook, you'll find two pages. One is a business plan snapshot, and the other is a
marketing plan snapshot. You can use both of
these pages to upload as your class project into
the projects tab below. At the end of this class, you're going to have
a lot of clarity in your dreams as an
art entrepreneur. You're going to
know exactly what your next steps should be to
get started on this journey. And remember, there are
no right answers here. Each of our paths is going to be completely unique to each of us and we are allowed to dream in any way that
we want to dream. I'm currently in the
process of setting up my own surface
pattern design business. This is going to be
a different leg from the art business that I've
currently been operating. I've been selling
my artwork under the name Shivani
Patel Art Studio, but now I've created
a different leg of my business with the brand
name Painted Stork Studio. So I'm going to use
that business as a real life example for you
as we go through this class. I'm going to fill out the
pages in the workbook with my own ideas for
Painted Stork Studio. So you're going to see
exactly how I would do this, and we're going to be
doing it side by side. Anytime you have questions, feel free to reach out to me
in the discussions tab below. Let's dive into the next lesson where we're going to
talk about how and why you need to think of yourself as a business.
I'll see you there.
3. Making art your business: I find that many creative people struggle to think of
themselves as a business. Somehow, that sounds
really intimidating, but it really doesn't
need to be that way. At the end of the day,
if you are providing some sort of value
to customers who are paying you money
in exchange for products or services,
you are a business. So you need to think
of yourself that way. It just comes down
to a mindset shift. You need to take yourself seriously as an
art entrepreneur. Only then other people will
take you seriously as well. Thinking of yourself as a
business helps you get really aligned on what the needle moving activities
in your work are. They're going to help you set a larger vision for yourself. It's going to help you
set goals for yourself, and it's going to
help you get onto the right track
towards those goals. Now that we've established that whether you're doing this
part time or full time, you are running a business, let's talk about
business models. Again, don't get intimidated
by the terminology. A business model is simply your way of operating
as a business. Every single business has a
different way of operating. Every business has
a different way in which it delivers
value to its clients. So, business model basically outlines your way of
operating as a business, what kind of value you're providing and who your
customer base is. We're going to talk more about
this in a future lesson, where I'll cover a few different common business
models for artists. I'm sure that going over those are definitely going to
spark some ideas for you. These are all the
things that I wish I knew when I first got
started as an entrepreneur. Understanding all of these
basic things are going to set a very solid foundation
for you to start building on. Also, keep in mind that each artist's path
is very different. Each artist is not only
different in the kind of art that they create
and their unique voice, but they're also
different in how they decide to
monetize their skills. Like I said, we're going
to go over some options, so don't worry about
that right now. I don't want you to ever look at another artist and think that their path is the
only possible path. You do not have to replicate
somebody else's journey. I always thought that I
needed to create a path that looks exactly like some
other artist who I admired. But it really doesn't
need to be that way, and likely your path is going to be completely
unique to you, and that's what's
special about it. You get to decide what
path you're going to take. In the next lesson, let's start shaping up our vision for
our creative business. Having a solid vision
is going to give you the perfect starting point for everything else
that's going to follow. I'll see you in the next lesson.
4. It starts with a vision: The author and
motivational speaker, Simon Sinek has a book
called Start With Why. That book became a
worldwide sensation, and if you've not watched
his Ted Talk on the topic, I would highly recommend it. I'll leave a link to that in the description in case
you'd like to check it out because it explains this concept of
the Why really well. Your Why essentially forms the purpose behind everything
that you do as a business. It helps you get really clear on what your
goals should be. And it also helps you realign anytime you find yourself
going a little off path. For artists, it's common for us to have two
different kinds of Why. One is our Why behind
our business itself, and then we have our Why behind
our artistic practice. Sometimes there's
a certain message that you want to put
out into the world. Sometimes there's
something that's particularly drawing
you towards it. All of that could form your Why. On the other hand,
your business Why could be for financial freedom, for independence, for just
becoming a millionaire. Whatever your dream is, there's no judgment here. Each person's Why could be completely different
from everybody else's. Some of us could be
financially motivated. Some of us could just be motivated to put something
out into the world. Either way, it's
really important for us to get clear
on what that is. And I'd also like to say that especially with
creative people, more often than not, the Why is never just
financially inclined. There's always something much larger that's motivating us to wake up each day
to create the art that we create and to put
it out into the world, to be vulnerable and to
build a community around us. So try to sit with this for a few moments and think
about what it is for you. Give this a lot of importance
because this, like I said, is going to form the foundation upon which you build
everything else. Everything else becomes a lot easier if we have a
clear sense of purpose. In the class workbook, which you can download through the link in the description, I've provided two
whole pages with prompts that are going to help you get more
clear on your Why. For now, I'm going to
fill out this workbook along with you for my brand
called Painted Stork Studio, which is going to
be focused more on art licensing and
surface pattern design. So the first question to think through is
why do you want to pursue your art as a business rather than just
leave it as a hobby. So write out your reasons here and there are
no wrong answers. So whatever you feel,
you can write here. The next question is about
your artistic vision. You could think about where you would like to see your art being seen or what kind of art you would feel
proud to be making. For me, personally, I do
naturalist illustrations. So I really want
to spread that joy that I feel towards
nature with others. So continue filling out all of these prompts in a way that
feels true to who you are. I'll see you in the next lesson where we're going to
talk about money.
5. Money matters: No business exists without
money in the picture. So let's stop feeling icky
when we think about money. A lot of artists feel really weird about charging
money for their art, and while it's completely
natural to feel that way, it's also important
to change that. We need to stop
thinking that way because what often
happens is that we start undervaluing ourselves and undervaluing all the work
that goes into our craft. Today, we are lucky to
be living in a time when the term "starving
artist" is just a myth. There are hundreds
of ways you could be making money as an
artist right now. I won't dive into
too much detail of all the different
income streams because I have a whole other
class on that topic. But right now, you just
need to understand the different ways in which you could potentially monetize. The first is monetizing
your art itself. So that would be selling
your original art, selling prints of your art, or even selling merchandise
with your art on it. You could even license your art, do surface pattern design, do commissioned
work for clients. All of those come under the monetization of
your art itself. The second thing that you could monetize is your skill set. So that would include things like teaching here
on skill share, online courses, one on one consultations,
things like that. And finally, you could
monetize your content. If you're an artist who
enjoys creating content, and if content is a large
part of your process, then some examples could
be earning through YouTube ad sense or through brand sponsorships
on Instagram. Again, I'm going
to give you a lot of examples on all of these in the next lesson where
we're going to talk about potential different
business models. Right now, you can use
the class workbook to brainstorm different ideas on income streams that
could work for you. While we're on the
topic of money, let's also touch upon pricing. No matter what you're offering
to your customer base, make sure that you're valuing your skills and
your time fairly. I've also given you a section in the class workbook where
you can think about how much money you
want to be making one year from now and
five years from now. You can also think about how much you would value
1 hour of your time. That's going to give you
some sort of basis on which you can value
your work itself. Like we already discussed, it's important for you to think of yourself as a business. That would mean that it's
also important for you to plan and budget properly
for your business expenses. Think about all the
different expenses that go into your business, be that your rent, your equipment for your
studio or the cost price that goes into creating products that you might be
shipping out to customers. Make sure that after all
your expenses are paid for, you're earning a
sufficient profit. That's the only way
that your business is going to be sustainable
in the long term. If you're interested
in learning more about how to price
your fine art pieces, then my other skill share
class on creating and selling fine art collections goes into a lot more
detail on that. So based on everything
we discussed right now, go ahead and fill out
your class workbook, and I'll see you in
the next lesson where we're going to talk
about business models. Once you get some
understanding of that, it's going to be a lot
easier for you to choose the right path for
yourself. I'll see you there.
6. Choosing the right path: Now that you have clarity
on your larger vision, it's time to think about what business model could potentially support that vision for you. Remember we are crafting a plan that's unique to each
and every one of us. Through this lesson,
I'm going to give you a few examples of different types of
business models that artists today
tend to work on, but you don't necessarily have to stick to
any one of them. Think about your own skill set. Think about what you
have an affinity for, and choose a path
that works for you. So the first business model
that's really common in the art world is a fine art
centered business model. Think about artists who predominantly like to paint
their work in the form of individual paintings or in
the form of collections and sell them either to their own collector base
or through galleries. The artist Emily Jeffords is
also a good example of this. While fine art isn't the
only way she monetizes, it is a central part of
everything she does. She creates these
beautiful collections of landscape paintings, and she sells them through her
website to her collectors. And then she also goes on to create prints of her artwork. So that would be a kind of fine art centered
business model. The next potential
path you could take is a content
centered business model, because I have a YouTube
channel of my own, I tend to follow a lot
of other art YouTubers. A great example of an
art YouTuber who's been able to monetize really
well is Kelsey Rodriguez. She's been creating content
on YouTube for a while now, and she's monetized
on the platform, which means she makes money
through YouTube ad sense. But not just that she also makes money through
brand sponsorships. Additionally, she does
sell her artwork as well. She sells prints of
her artwork as well, and she uses her YouTube base as a great way to market the products that she
sells on her website. The next one could be a product
centered business model. If you're really into any
kind of surface design, if you love the idea of
seeing your art on products, then this could be a
great option for you. Stacie Bloomfield does have courses that she sells as well, but she separately
has a brand called Gingiber which she uses to sell products like notebooks and tea towels and so much more
with her artwork on them. Another model that
could work for you is a digital product
centered business model. If you want to have
something that's a lot more passive than active
as an income source, then this could be an
option to consider. A lot of artists sell
digital products in the form of workbooks
or procreate brushes or just pattern packs through websites
like Creative Market, through websites like Etsy or
through their own website. A good example here is Lisa Glanz who uses
her own website as well as creative market to sell these beautiful
procreate brush packs that she creates herself. Then you could have a licensing
centered business model. I already mentioned
Stacie Bloomfield, whose brand Gingiber
sells products, but she also uses this brand
to license her artwork. And another great example
here is Bonnie Christine, who's a very popular
surface pattern designer. In this model, you
would create a lot of artwork to put into a portfolio, which you would then
pitch to brands who could potentially license
the artwork from you, and they would take
care of creating products and marketing it
to their customer base. So you don't have to get into the hassle of creating
your own products, dealing with vendors and keeping inventory to
ship out to customers. If you're interested in something that's a little
bit more passive and getting your products out
to the masses without the hassle of being tied to a single location and
handling inventory, then this could be
a great option. Finally, we could have a
teaching centered business model. A good example here
is Cat Coquillette, who teaches here on Skillshare, and she also has a host of other online courses that she
sells through her website. Now, I also want to mention that none of these
artists that I gave you as examples have just one way of
monetizing their art. All of them are doing
multiple things, and that's something that you can also build up to over time. But don't try to start by
doing too many things at once. It's okay to have a plan
of where you want to go. But in the beginning,
think about what you want to center your
entire business on. Think about what your signature is going to be and what
you want to be known for. I mentioned Cat Coqiulette as a teaching centered
business model, but art licensing also forms a large part
of what she does. I mentioned Bonnie Christine as a licensing centered model, but teaching forms a large
part of what she does. She has a signature
course called Immersion, where she teaches
other people how to become surface
pattern designers. The same goes with
Emily Jeffords who I mentioned as a fine art
centered business model. She also has a
course and she has a membership that she offers
to other budding artists. Try not to get overwhelmed with all the different
possibilities. To begin your journey, just pick one thing that you
feel most drawn towards. As I've been speaking
about all of these things, think about which one seemed
to light you up the most. Which did you feel
really excited by? Which of these things
would you choose to do, even if you weren't
making money out of it? Usually, that's a great
prompt that helps you realize what you're most excited by and what you're
most passionate about. Use the workbook to fill out all of these ideas for yourself. In the context of
my brand called Painted Stork Studio that
I'm currently creating, I would say that I naturally have an affinity for creating marketable products because of my background in the
fashion industry as well. I think I would love to create illustrations for wall art
and physical products. Again, because of
my understanding of product and my background. I think I would continue
creating repeating patterns, even if I didn't earn
an income out of it, because I just love the process. I love the process of designing
an entire collection, and it really lights me up. So that's something I might
continue doing just for fun, even if this just
became a hobby for me. I think creating a course on surface pattern design
is something that I would love to do at
some point in the future, because I think I have a lot to share from my own journey, but it's a little challenging and it
requires a lot of work. So maybe that's something I could do sometime in the future. It may not be what I
focus on right now. And I know that
this is going to be a licensing centered
business model. And if I could pick
just one offer, I would create a portfolio for surface pattern designs
to pitch to clients. Once you're done with this, you'll have some understanding
of what you're drawn towards and what your
main three core offers of your business could be. Try to keep them somewhat
related to each other so that you're not chasing in too many directions
at the same time. As you build up your business, you could always
add on more offers. As you build experience
in one domain, you'll find yourself
ready to take on another. Now that you know what you
could potentially be offering, it's time to think about who your clients are that
you're going to serve. So let's discuss that
in the next lesson.
7. Who are you serving?: With any business, it's really
important for you to have an ideal customer persona that you are targeting.
Think of it this way. Imagine your friend comes
to you with a problem. Now, when you're talking to them and trying to
solve their problem, are you going to talk to them as an individual person with
individual problems? Or are you going to
talk to them as if they were a group of 50 to
100 different people. With somewhat related problems. You're going to choose
the former, right? You're going to talk to them as one individual person
with unique problems. The same goes with
your business as well. Sometimes it's a little hard
to wrap your head around that because it feels
like with a business, you are targeting a
large group of people, and that is absolutely true. But the more
specific you can get about who your
ideal customer is, the more close you're
going to get to attracting exactly the right person for your business and
for your offers. So think about who
this person is. Who is it that your
business is going to serve? Think about their demographics. Think about where they live, what they're like, who they are, what's their personality, and think about what kind of
books they like to read? Where do they like to hang out? The class workbook
is going to give you all the prompts that you need to get started
thinking about this. As you're going
through these prompts, try to visualize that
one perfect person who would be the right
fit for your business. The target audience for fine art original paintings
is going to be very different from the
target audience for beginner level painting
tutorials, for example. So if you have multiple
different offers, it's okay to craft a different persona for
each of those offers. In the previous
lessons workbook, we went over the single offer that you could create if you could create just one product. If you need to, you can
print out this workbook multiple times and fill it for each of your different personas. But for now, try to think about that single offer that you feel most drawn
towards right now. Doing this exercise helps you visualize that one
person who would be the perfect fit for your
business and keep them at the back of your mind every
time you create something. Be it your offers, for example, if you're
creating a course. Keeping the pain points of this customer in your mind will help you craft a course that's
targeted for their needs. Even when you're writing your
social media descriptions, having your ideal Persona
is going to help you talk in a language that most
connects with that audience. So go ahead and fill
out this workbook to understand your target
customer a lot better, and I'll see you in the next
lesson where we're going to start talking about how
to set goals that matter.
8. Setting goals that matter: When it comes to setting
goals for your business, it's important for you to have both long term goals
and short term goals. Long term goals
are going to help you support your larger vision. They all the big dreams
that you have that can't happen immediately until you
lay the foundation for them. And short term goals are what are going to help
you set that foundation. Short term goals can help you bring some financial
stability to your business so
that you're able to work on the big picture things
as you keep progressing. Short term goals can not only help you lay the foundations
for your business, but They can also help you test the waters to understand what you're actually
drawn towards. They can also help
you on the path to financially support
your larger dreams. So as you start your journey, I would recommend being less
rigid in the beginning. Try to leave room for
experimenting, for playing, for testing things out and
seeing what works for you, and what doesn't work for you. Fill out the workbook with
your ideas as they are today. But keep in mind that these
can keep evolving over time. For most people, they
do end up evolving. My business isn't
exactly where I thought it would be two years
ago when I started out. I initially thought
that I would have a much larger focus on
selling fine art itself. But over time, I've realized that I really
enjoy teaching, and that's where I find joy
and fulfillment in my work. It's also helping me
financially support my dreams. So over time, my business has evolved to have a larger
focus on teaching. Art licensing is another avenue that I never thought I
might be interested in. But as I've learned more
about the industry, I've found that I do have a
natural affinity towards it, and it's something that
I would love to pursue. So give yourself
that room to keep evolving and growing
as things progress. One thing I highly
recommend is not to have more than one core goal that you're focusing
on per quarter. Having too much to
focus on just dilutes your focus and doesn't actually take you
closer to the goals. So every quarter, try not to work on more than
one large goal. Use the class workbook
that's been provided to fill out your ideas for
what these goals could be. For myself, I would say that
in five years from now, I would want to have a lot
more free time for myself. I would have a lot
more independence and financial freedom. And in order to be
able to do that, I think I would
want a larger part of my income being passive. So that's something that
I would definitely want my short term goals to
help me work towards. If money was no object, I think I would definitely want to create a
signature course. And while I'm not yet sure what the topic of
that course would be, it's definitely a
dream of mine to have a course and to be able to share all of my
knowledge with students. Something that I need to
immediately work on to get towards where I want to be with my art licensing
business is a portfolio. Without a portfolio, I'm not going to be able
to reach out to clients or start getting any licensing
projects to work on. So that would be the
most immediate thing that I need to focus on. Like I said, we're going to set not more than one big
goal per quarter. So I would say that
for the first quarter, which for me is going
to be April to June. I would want to just focus
on creating my portfolio. For the next quarter, maybe I would want to start
reaching out to clients, and the quarter after that, I think I would want to find a licensing agent
because like I said, my goal is independence
and financial freedom. To be able to do that, I
think I want to have a lot of the day to day grind
work taken off my plate. Having an agent could
help support that. And finally, in the
fourth quarter, I think I would want to land my dream licensing project with a brand that I
really want to work with. This gives me enough
time to really build up my portfolio
with a lot of seasonal collections as well to be able to showcase to a brand that I really
want to work with. So aside from this, I would
highly recommend that you make time to review your goals to make
sure you're on track. Sometimes it can also
be helpful to have an accountability buddy
to help with this. If there's a friend
who's on a similar path, you could talk to each other and make sure that
you're on track. For now, use the space in
the workbook to commit to yourself to do a review
every month and every year. So for myself, I would
do a monthly review on the 25th day of every
month and I would do a yearly review on
December 20th every year. So you can pick something
that works for you. Now, let's start getting
into everything marketing. So let's talk about building an audience in the next lesson.
9. Building an audience: Marketing is an ongoing process
that takes daily effort, but I like to think
about it in two buckets. The first one is where you
actually build an audience, and that is your
discovery phase. Secondly, you have
the commitment phase and this is where
you're actually marketing your offers to an existing audience in
order to make sales. As an artist or
creator of any kind, marketing, like I said,
is a daily effort. You need to put in the work to be able to build
an audience that really connects with your work and with who you
are as an artist. It's important to be
vulnerable and showcase your personality so that people get to know the person
behind the art. You could do this through
social media marketing. You could use email newsletters. You could do it
offline at events, or you could even use a
platform like YouTube. Only once you get
people to really connect with who you
are as an artist, are you going to be able
to sell something to them. It's important to be
consistent and commit to a schedule with
whatever platform that you choose to
build your audience on. For me, it's predominantly
YouTube, but also Instagram. I try not to focus too much on the numbers when it
comes to Instagram, but I think of it more like a portfolio platform
where I get to showcase my work and where
potential customers or clients can come
and discover my work. I use YouTube as a more
long term content platform where I'm able to come and
showcase exactly who I am. I'm able to share my
knowledge with my audience, and I'm able to build a community that really
connects with what I do. Both of these platforms help me generate new audiences
for my work. I then nurture this
audience through Instagram again and
through e mail marketing. So on Instagram, I use
the stories feature to regularly post updates from my studio
behind the scenes, show people my entire process, because that's how they're
going to know more about what goes into
creating what I create. And I use e mail
marketing to send out weekly newsletters where I update my subscribers on
what's going on with me. I share some valuable learnings and insights from my
studio each week, and I'm able to showcase my personality a lot
better on that medium. Now, like I said, I'm consistently
building new audiences, and I'm nurturing
these audiences. And as I nurture them over time, I'm able to use all of these different platforms to actually sell my offers to them. I might do this by creating a YouTube video where I talk about my new
skill share class, for example, or I might use my email newsletters to share
updates to my online store. Each time I release new
artwork or new prints. I make sure to send
out an e mail to update my subscribers so that
they can go check it out. So always think about how your different
marketing platforms could work like a
well oiled machine. Each time I put out
a video on YouTube. I then create a
corresponding blog post that goes onto my website. This helps me generate traffic
to my website through SEO. It also helps people click from my website and go
check out my videos. Additionally, for every
blog post that I create, I create ten pins that
I put up on Pinterest. This helps me, again, direct people from
Pinterest onto my website. From here, I can have a call to action where I can
tell them to check out either a video that I've created or an offer
on my website. And every time I create
a long form video, I also turn it into
short form videos, which I use as Instagram
reels or YouTube shots. Repurposing content is
another great way for you to make the most of everything that you're
already creating. Try not to reinvent the wheel and try not
to complicate things. Marketing can be very simple if you choose
to make it that way. So use the class
workbook to think about what kind of content you would
be most drawn to create. If all you want to
do is create images, then go ahead and do that. Have some starting point. I don't want you to feel like because videos are what
are trending right now, you only need to create videos. I would be great if you could create videos, but if you can't, it's fine to go ahead and
create what you're able to create and create what
you are excited by. That's more important and it's important for you
to be yourself. I've also given you a page in
the workbook where you can brainstorm some content ideas for your different
marketing platforms. In the next lesson, we'll talk a little bit more about
the second bucket, that is the commitment phase. So we're going to
talk about how you can market your
offers for sales.
10. Marketing that works for you: Like we discussed in
the previous lesson, Marketing can be a lot of fun. It really doesn't
have to feel sleazy like it often does to
many of us creatives. A person needs to see your
offer multiple times. They need to be exposed
to it multiple times on multiple different touch points before they're ready to
make a purchase from you. You could use platforms
like Pinterest, Instagram, e mail marketing, YouTube to market your offers
to your customers. Let's say somebody discovers you through their explore
feed on Instagram. This is their first
exposure to your artwork, and they're quite impressed
by what they see. Let's say they then walk down to a local boutique in their neighborhood and they see your artwork stocked there. Now they're even more intrigued, and they feel a little
more trust about who you are and the fact that you have
some sort of credibility. Now, let's say they come back home and they're browsing on pinterest for decor ideas
for redecorating their home. Again, they come across
your artwork there, and now they're
really intrigued. Now they click and maybe they
go through to your website or your Etsy store and maybe they're ready
to make a purchase. If a person is exposed to your work for the
very first time, it's unlikely that they're going to immediately make a purchase. Compare that with
the previous example I gave you where
they've gone through a complete flow of events where they've come across
your work multiple times. That's going to build more
trust, more authority, and that's going
to make them a lot more likely to actually
make a purchase. When you're thinking about
marketing your offers, it's not only important to think about where your customers are spending time so that you can make sure that you're
seen in those places, but it's also important to think about what your customer's
pain points could be. This way, your marketing
could effectively communicate the benefits of
your offer to your customers. If your offers are
hosted on a platform that already has an existing
audience, for example, skillshare for online courses, or Etsy for selling your artwork, then a large part of
your marketing effort goes into SEO research. You need to think about
what keywords customers are using when they're looking
for products like yours. This way, when they search
for the right keywords, your products are going to
come up in the search results, and it's going to make
them more likely to buy. So you've already thought about who your customer
base is going to be. You've thought about your
offers and your price points. Now, use this section
of the workbook to think about what your marketing
is going to look like. This workbook section also has some really
interesting prompts. One of them is what could be your customer's reasons for
not buying your product. Again, the reason for this prompt is to help
you brainstorm ways that you could effectively communicate the benefits of your product to your audience. If you feel that
the price point is going to be something that
prevents people from buying, then maybe your
communication could explain to people why your products
cost what they do. Maybe you could talk
about your quality. You could talk about the value of the materials that are
going into your work. You can also talk about how
many years of experience you have because
that is something that contributes to
the price as well. Marketing also doesn't just stop once the customer
has bought from you. Think about how you're
going to nurture your customers even after
they've made a purchase. It's important to have
them coming back to you again and again and
becoming repeat customers. It's also important for
them to love the experience of buying from you so much that they tell
other people about it. Also think about how you can collect reviews from
satisfied customers. This way, you have
some social proof, and that's always a
great way to entice even more people to sign
up for your product. In the next lesson, let's
talk about how you can build your unique brand.
11. Building your unique brand: Now that you've thought
all about your audience, what you're going
to offer to them, how you're going to market and effectively
communicate with them? Let's move the
spotlight onto you. Think about your
brand at this point. As an artist, your brand is another form of your
creative expression. So what is your
brand going to be? Think about your brand as a person with their own
unique personality. If that was the case, what
would your brand's likes be? What would their dislikes be? What would be their quirks
and their unique strengths? What would be the colors that you would
associate them with? Use the workbook to brainstorm all of these
different things. Also think about whether you
would like to operate under your own name or under
a different brand name. An example of operating under your own name
would be an artist like Emily Jeffords who sells all of her products and services
under her own name. An example of operating under a brand name would be
rifle paper company. And sometimes artists do a hybrid of both
of these things. For example, Stacie Bloomfield sells her courses
under her own name, but she also has
her brand Gingiber which is all of her products
and her licensing business. That's similar to what
I'm building up as well, where I do have Shivani
Patel Art Studio as my main business for my
courses and for my fine art. But then I also have
Painted stork Studio, which is going to be the home
of all of my art licensing and potential merchandise or products and may
design in the future. Once you've brainstormed
all of these things, you'll also be ready
to create a logo for your brand that is reflective of your brand's
unique personality. You can think about the
brand's color palette as well. Let me fill out a few of
these prompts to give you an example with my own
brand painted stork Studio. So first thing, I'm going to
insert my brand name here. When you're thinking about
your brand personality, think about whether the
brand is fun or quirky. Is it more serious
and sophisticated? Is it more minimal? Is it more maximal? All of those are keywords
that you could use here. So keep your own brand's personality in mind and
fill out all of these prompts. In the next lesson, let's start talking about
a few habits that are going to set you up for success as an art entrepreneur.
12. Setting yourself up for success: You're now almost
ready to go out into the world and start working
on your art business. But before you do that, there are a few things that
we need to go over. It's not enough for us to just work on a plan and then
never look at it again. It's important for us
to put daily effort towards our goals because that's the only way that
we're going to get there. Building your creative business takes consistency
and daily practice, and there are a few habits that can help you set yourself
up to get there. The first thing is to conduct weekly and monthly reviews for yourself to make sure
that you're on track. Make sure that
you're keeping track of your progress
towards your goals, but also your finances. You want to make sure that
you're keeping track of all the money that's coming in and going out
of your business. It also helps to have a
separate bank account for your business so that
everything's not mixing in with your
personal finances. That's something that I wish I did much earlier in my journey, and I would highly recommend it. The next one is to never forget to make time
for your craft. As you start working
towards a business, there are going to be
so many different tasks that occupy your time. There's going to be
administrative work, there's going to be managing
a social media account, a website, and so much more. But in between all of that, you need to remember
that your art is the reason why you started
this in the first place. So make sure that you're
always making time to improve your skills and to
keep practicing your art. The next thing I
want you to do is make a commitment to
put yourself out there. Even when it feels
uncomfortable, even when it feels like
you're being too vulnerable. It's important to put
your work out there, get feedback from the
market and keep improving. Don't let the fear of what other people are
going to think about your art or say about your art prevent you from
putting your work out there. It's only by consistently
showing up and showcasing your work that you will get an opportunity to
grow your business. The next thing I want you to
always remember to do is to take care of yourself financially while you
build up your business. You may have a family or spouse who's able to
support your dreams, but many people don't have that. If at this stage, you don't have enough funds saved up to
leave your full time job, then continue working full time and build your art
business part time. Build it up this way until it's able to support
you financially. It's completely fine to do that. There's no shame in it, and
I would highly recommend that you do what you must to keep yourself
financially stable. That gives you the confidence to be able to take risks with your business and to
create work fearlessly. And finally, this
is one that I'm saying to myself as much
as I'm saying to you, and that is don't
forget to rest. We want to build
up a business that fuels us and is sustainable. We don't want to
build a business that completely burns us out. That's another reason
why I insisted on setting just one major
goal per quarter. If you're working
on this part time, feel free to reduce that to one major goal every six
months, if you have to, but make sure that you're taking care of yourself
because unless you give your body and soul that
time to rest and rejuvenate, you're not going to be able to create the magic that you do. So on this page of the workbook, I want you to tick off all
of these boxes and commit to all of these
habits that are going to set you up for
success in the future. So check off all of those boxes, and I'll see you in
the next lesson.
13. Get personalised mentorship: I'm so excited to let you
all know that I'm now offering one on one consultation sessions
here on skill share. Through the one on one sessions, you can work with me and get personalized feedback
for your own journey. I offer two types of sessions. One of them is an art
critiquing session where you can send in
your gouache artwork to me and I'll go through
it and I'll help you create a personalized
plan for your improvement. And the second session is
a business consultation. That's really relevant
to this class as well, because if you've gone
through all of the lessons, if you've filled
out the workbook, then we can discuss that
in a lot more detail. I can help you get a lot more
strategic with your goals. I'll help you understand
what you should be focusing on and what your plan
should be for your growth. This can be really helpful for you to make sure that you're focusing on the most
important activities that your business needs. We'll go through not
just the business plan, but also the marketing
side of things. We'll discuss your unique
strengths and how you can craft your marketing plan in
a way that is true to you. I really look forward
to getting on a call with you and
discussing all of this. Keep in mind that I have very limited spots
available per month, so make sure you book yours soon.
14. Summing up: Congratulations on making it
to the end of this class. I hope this class has
given you a lot of clarity on your big
goals and dreams for your business
and an understanding of how to plan your marketing
to help you get there. To recap everything that we
learned during this class, we went over how and why you need to think of
yourself as a business. We spoke about your finances, we spoke about your vision for your business and
your artistic practice. We also spoke about
goal setting. We spoke about your finances
and pricing your offer. We spoke about business models, and I gave you a
lot of examples on different business
models so that you could pick one that
works for you. We then spoke about your
ideal customer persona. We spoke about marketing
and communication both for building an audience and
for selling your offers. We then spoke about your
branding and visual identity. Use all of the ideas that you came up with during
this class to fill out your business plan snapshot and marketing
plan snapshot. You can upload both of these pages into the
project gallery. I would love to check them
out and provide my feedback. If you'd like to see
my business snapshots, they've already been uploaded into the projects gallery below. If you'd like to
follow my journey, you can connect with
me over on Instagram. You can also check out my Painted Stock Studio's
Instagram account. I put up a lot of free tutorials
and videos on YouTube, so be sure to go
and check that out. Also, follow me here
on Skillshare so that you're notified whenever
I release a new floss. Thank you so much for watching, and it's been a
pleasure to teach you all of these subjects that
I'm so passionate about. I look forward to seeing you inside another one
of my classes. For now, if you're interested in learning more about
how you can grow a fine art centered business and how you can create
fine art collections, then I'd recommend checking out my previous skill share
class on the subject. So I'll see you next time. Bye.
Shivani Patel, Gouache Artist | Creative Entrepreneur
